Charcoal briquettes are compressed blocks of black porous carbonaceous material used to provide the heat for barbequing or grilling food. Although the blocks can come in several shapes, the blocks are generally pillow-shaped. Typically, charcoal briquettes are placed in a bottom of a grill, ignited, and burn to coals over time providing the heat for cooking the food.
Charcoal briquettes are very messy, often leaving a black residue on items, such as a user's clothes or skin, upon contact. Therefore it is desirable to keep the manual handling of charcoal briquettes to a minimum.
One of the most common packages for charcoal briquettes is a large bag containing a predetermined weight of charcoal briquettes. The size and weight of the bags vary usually from five pounds to 20 pounds.
Typically the bag package contains enough charcoal briquettes for multiple uses. Therefore the bag package requires the transfer of a partial amount of charcoal briquettes from the bag to the grill. Due to the bag's weight and shape and the messiness associated with charcoal, this transfer step is undesirable.
Also, in order to adequately ignite the charcoal briquettes some sort of kindling or fire starter must be employed. The most common fire starter is lighter fluid. However, lighter fluid by design is very flammable and thus dangerous. Lighter fluid also may leave an unpleasant odor and/or taste on the food being cooked.
The bag package of charcoal briquettes contains only briquettes. Therefore in order to successfully use the bag of charcoal briquettes, a separate purchase of kindling or fire starter in a separate package is required. This separate package contains a flammable material and requires extra care.
Alternative packages are available. The alternative packages may contain only enough charcoal briquettes for one use and do not require additional handling of the charcoal briquettes because the packages are combustible. However, these packages are more expensive because the packages often require complex structures, such as internal panels to create flues or chimneys. Also, the charcoal briquettes often used in these packages are presoaked with a flammable liquid, such as lighter fluid, to initiate the burning of the charcoal. However, this also causes the charcoal to burn too quickly and is not desirable.
Cost is always an issue with packaging. However, the cost of charcoal briquettes packaging is especially sensitive. Charcoal briquettes and its packaging are used only once and then disposed of. Therefore consumers are unwilling to spend any significant amount on the packaging.
In light of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a package that is inexpensive to produce and is designed to hold both charcoal briquettes and a fire starter without requiring any additional handling of the charcoal briquettes by the user.